Magazu attends Luke Marquardt workout Lard

Douglas LeeApr 12, 2013 10:00 AM

Happy Friday, Broncos fans! According to Rob Rang, 16-18 teams, including the Broncos, attended the pro day of Azusa Pacific on Thursday.

They were apparently there to see 6-8, 315-lb tackle Luke Marquardt, and Denver was represented by offensive line coach Dave Magazu. San Diego and San Francisco also reportedly sent their line coaches to watch Marquardt perform.

Azusa Pacific, which is located 30 minutes east of Los Angeles, is the alma mater of former Chiefs star RB Christian Okoye, and Marquardt's position coach at APU is HOF tackle Jackie Slater.

Marquardt started every game at left tackle during the 2010 and 2011 seasons, but a broken foot cost him his senior campaign.

The Sammamish, WA native posted 31 bench reps at the combine, but did no on-field drills, hence yesterday's workout.

According to Rang, Marquardt is seen as a potential Day 3 (rounds 4-7) draft choice.

Broncos

Jeff Legwold is finally admitting for real that the Broncos aren't utilizing a fullback in their offense, but his proof that it's not all about passing is that Adrian Peterson won the MVP, and he's apparently the one person who doesn't think the Ravens chucked their way to a SB title.

From Daniel Jeremiah's viewing, the video of Peyton Manning throwing at Duke shows increased velocity from last year.

Von Miller visited NFLN to discuss the influence of Peyton Manning and the departure of Elvis Dumervil.

Here's a video wrapup of the Broncos' Salute to Fans tour which made 20 different stops around Colorado.

News

As part of the league's attempt to make the in-stadium experience more robust, teams can now use their video boards to incite crowd noise during plays, but will that get the wine and cheese crowd at SAF@MH off their asses on third downs? We shall see...

The NHL is taking the lead among pro sports leagues on preparing for some of its players to come out as gay, and the NFL is taking some positive steps to follow.

According to Jason Cole, Giants WR Victor Cruz had no interest in entertaining offers from other teams, out of a desire to work with Jay-Z on potential marketing opportunities.

Turns out reports that Oakland had signed QB Seneca Wallace were premature, and they worked out Vince Young and Troy Smith yesterday.

Tampa Bay added former Toledo WR Eric Page, whom Denver had signed as an undrafted rookie last year.

Analysis

Given that Rod Smith, Terrell Davis, and Shannon Sharpe each scored so many more touchdowns than Rick Upchurch did (along with several others), it's odd to see that Condoleezza Rice's ex-boyfriend is the only Bronco with at least five game-winning scores to his credit. It's less surprising that Floyd Little isn't on the list, given how rarely the Broncos won during his career.

Mike Tanier points to the selection of Brock Osweiler as the exceedingly rare instance were tracking pre-draft meetings and workouts actually foretells a team drafting a prospect. He's right, of course, but that's not going to stop us from updating our pre-draft visit tracker.

As much as we all take masochistic pleasure in ruing the Broncos' draft failures over the years, they've not had any historically bad draft classes; of course, they haven't had historically great ones either. All in all though, they've been one of the most successful franchises in football for most of the past 40 years, which means they've been doing something right, and not just in terms of stealing quarterbacks from the Colts.

Doug is IAOFM’s resident newsman and spelling czar. Follow him on Twitter @IAOFM

Not to mention that it was build from steel girders and swayed when the feet really got pounding. Heck of a feeling!

Posted by Doc Bear on 2013-04-12 22:20:12

Most of his issues can be addressed through coaching. He put in the work to master the techniques needed to excel in discus and shot put, so I think there's hope for him. I think his chances of success are directly tied to the expectations of the team that drafts him. If a good team picks him and breaks him in as a situational pass rusher while they teach him the game, he has a chance to develop into a good player. If some crappy team picks him and expects him to play every down and make an immediate impact, he's likely to fail.

Posted by Yahmule on 2013-04-12 20:48:06

Not in the slightest. I would have amped up the volume if I wasn't already @ 11.

Posted by Yahmule on 2013-04-12 19:14:08

Ive always believed that your rank drafts by the number of players that make it to another contract ON YOUR TEAM.

Drafting a player that goes on to play some where else when we could have used him here like heyward, and there was another DL guy about the same time we had to let go because we had no cap space. Hixon was another guy that wound up as a semi star elsewhere.

But it appears those old days of making bad decisions are gone since the second Mc D draft.

We finally seem to be building the foundation of the team with our draftees.

Posted by Lonestar47 on 2013-04-12 18:55:31

The way this stadium is designed ets the sound escape, old Mile Hi was built so vertical the sound bounced around. I think that is part of the difference

Posted by Eddie Crowder on 2013-04-12 14:35:24

Margus Hunt is the most overated player in this draft. He does one thing exceptional and its block kicks. I have seen this guy in person a couple of times here in Dallas and he gets lost, has zero football instinct what so ever. Example, Last year against TCU they knew he would just rush the passer and they ran right at him and tore them up. I would not touch Hunt till about the 3rd round

Posted by Eddie Crowder on 2013-04-12 14:32:47

As a video board operator for the sedate sport of Cricket, the list of things you can't do and show is unbelievable.

Posted by Mike Birtwistle on 2013-04-12 13:46:21

I hope you didn't allow them to disrupt your wall of noise. They can go and feel superior somewhere else, IMO, like a golf tournament or something . . .

Posted by AZDynamics on 2013-04-12 13:17:35

The closest I've ever seen it in person was the Jets and Colts games when McDaniels was here(the year before Tebow).

Posted by Myron Giddings Jr on 2013-04-12 11:45:57

I look forward to the day Luck's apprenticeship is done in Indy (expiring rookie contract), that should coincide with PM's contract expiring with Denver. Luck would look magnificent in Bronco's orange.

Posted by hcubed on 2013-04-12 11:16:42

It may not have been historically bad, but you don't want too many drafts like 2003.

Posted by AldenBrown on 2013-04-12 11:04:54

Most of us here are probably like that, but you know the people he's talking about. I sat club level for a game a few years ago and my personal wall of noise was disrupting cell phone conversations.

Posted by Yahmule on 2013-04-12 10:57:46

Whoa, who you calling wine and cheese crowd? I cheer so loud I lose my voice there buddy! :)

Posted by RockyMtnThunder on 2013-04-12 10:35:18

Mike Tanier's writeup about team visits with players explains more of what I was thinking the other day about my comments in the pre-draft interview tracker thread: Teams may very well have an interest in a player yet have no reported visit or interview with the player.

I don't necessarily think that teams schedule all these visits as merely a smokescreen and that, yes, there are some they have a legitimate interest in. But some people act like each of these visits must MEAN SOMETHING when we have no idea what those teams think after such visits have concluded... and when we have no idea about the players who teams aren't reported to have tracked down for an interview, workout or whatever. Or it may be that teams see enough from players by watching games and visiting the combine to know who it is they plan to target in a draft.